fredag 26. august 2016

It is about knowing, as in… #3

NORSKI am still reflecting on the chorus-line that has been focus the last couple of days: “Be at rest and know that I am the Lord!” Today, it is about ‘knowing’ as in the word ‘acquainting’, referring to the process of learning to know the Lord in a way that becomes a personal relationship. If I want to be holy, I need to know the one who is holy.

“Let’s know, let’s press on to know the Lord; whose appearing is as certain as the dawn; who will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that give drink to the earth.” Hos 6:3 (CEB)

The verse is from a prophecy of Hosea and stands in a context I will come back to tomorrow, but it is very important for me to focus on the aspect of learning to know the Lord in an intimate way. Some people make the mistake to think that they know God because they have knowledge about him.

Why is this a mistake? I have some knowledge about one of the most powerful men on earth (at least for a few months more), but my knowledge about president Obama is very different from that of his close friends and close family.

I believe that the disciples had reach this kind of relationship with Jesus, when he just before his death proclaimed:

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.John 15:15

The challenge “Press on to know the Lord!” is an exhortation to know him as close as a member of the family of God – ‘the community of the saints’.

1 kommentar:

Thank you, Jostein, for this commentary about knowing God. This is what full salvation is all about. Being saved is a process, we have been saved, we are being saved and in the final outcome, fully saved knowing God. When the Israelites in Egypt, through the blood escaped the judgement of death and left Egypt they were saved, but their knowledge of the God who saved them was pitiful. Then they were delivered from the power of Egypt at the baptism of crossing the Red Sea. They had learnt something but had a long way to go. The Wilderness experiences ware all part of the process of knowing God, that He could provide living water, the Bread of Life and victory of their enemies. They slowly learnt to trust God. They received the 10 commandments of the law, and the development of the Tabernacle was a visual sign of the invisible God and how they should approach him. The saving from sin is wonderful but it is not the end, we must progress to know the God who has saved and to have fellowship with Him, to know as we are fully known, Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.